Curious to know what your cash / amex ratio is? Many shops I go either take cash or v/m. Therefore, it's hard for me to rely on amex if I wanted that to be the majority of my spendings.

The debit card can't be used outside of North America. I asked them about it.

Amex SPG cards are soon to be FTF-free. Use that whenever you can in China.

Usually big institutions in China accept foreign cards, and usually they accept Amex when they accept Visa/MC. I said usually, which is about more than 60% at least in Beijing.

In money % spent, I'd say about 2-1 (in favour of Amex) - a hotel night costs roughly 500 RMB (I like good 4* or 5*, depending on locations, and we all know the little tricks here on FT to get such rates :D ) in average, that expenses can be paid by Amex.

I've had a few stays in hotels which don't take Amex or even MC/Visa (usually they either take all, or none), but for those I can always use an ATM or UnionPay.

Other expenses, unless I go for expensive food (seldom) or "expensive" shopping (even more seldom), 200-300 RMB is more than enough for what I spend on food/transport etc. - obviously being almost only in Cash or UnionPay (debit card). So, while the amount of transactions that I'll be using my Amex is low (1 transaction per stay.. but then, China is a GREAT place to get some stays for brands like Hilton :D ) the amount is high compared to my other expenses, which are plentiful but low.

So, for many transactions I'll use cash as it's fast and easy (sure, contactless is faster.. and I love it in places like Singapore or Switzerland.. but it just won't get on in China I've the feeling..) - and for those few hotel (or expensive restaurants) payments, I'll go with Amex.

even in Canada, very few merchants have displayed the Discover logo....

I do wonder if there are plenty of merchants in Canada that do accept it but don't advertise.

In the UK, all the major acquirers automatically enroll Discover/Diners acceptance along with Visa and MasterCard (And Now Amex with OptBlue) and most merchants accept it (And pretty much all small businesses). Most don't display a logo though.

Had an interesting experience today at a Beijing pub known to be frequented by expats. HSBC terminal accepted my pin preference corporate Citi Mastercard, authorized the transaction, and spit out a receipt with DCC box prechecked. No opportunity to decline DCC. Interestingly enough, the DCC rate was printed in very small font on the receipt. First time I recall seeing that - about 5% worse than the bank rate.

This is one downside of PIN transactions. It's still worth a chargeback though since the barrier for MC is simply stating you were not offered to complete the transaction in the currency of your choosing.

If its anything like some suspect terminals in Spain, the terminal will tell you to give the card back to the merchant after you've entered your PIN and then it asks the merchant which currency to charge in.

Could be. Unfortunately, I'm not fluent in Mandarin, so I couldn't read what the screen said after I entered the pin.

[deleted Off Topic comment]

Most of the POS in China involve some kind of tricks to disable DCC.

On a side note, I was DCCed in HKG, at the Popeye. I suspect that the cashier failed to input the currency choice because the fast-food counter was quite busy. When I was trying to dispute the charge to Citi, and inputing the dispute amount of $0.2, I quit, thinking the dispute would look ridiculous.

If Citi provided a choice of "I was billed in the wrong currency", I would have gone ahead and finish dispute.

Taiwan going bad again
 

I'll have to check this out the next time I am there. I've found Taiwan to be fairly compliant, but having a native spouse and in-laws certainly helps. :D

It's our good friends from Global Payments:

http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...0642_68457.jpg

http://www.hongkongcard.com/webedito...0730_73278.jpg

Seriously, governments spend time closing down Uber but can't do a thing against these perps? No wonder we've Occupy.

Did the server make those pen marks beforehand? This appears to be a PIN transaction, was this part of the "receipt"?